City Hall Fellows is the only national organization offering a systemic solution to the leadership crisis threatening American cities.

City Hall Fellows gives America's best and brightest recent college graduates firsthand experience in using local government to drive social change. Our Fellows function as full-time city employees, not as interns, consultants or observers. In contrast to existing means for engaging new talent in civic issues – ad-hoc, part-time, short-term government internships, programs for MPA/MPP graduates and mid-career programs for local business leaders – City Hall Fellows engages future leaders at the most pivotal point in their career development: the year after college graduation. Unlike typical leadership and internship programs, City Hall Fellows does not simply trot out city officials to “talk at” our Fellows. Rather, our Fellows participate in a structured, year-long, quasi-academic exploration of how local governments function and why they function as they do, complete with intensive service projects through which Fellows try their hands at policy evaluation and policy-making. Throughout, our Fellows experience how their efforts directly impact their local community.

By energizing more new young talent to enter the local public sector each year, City Hall Fellows is initiating a snowball effect that will change both the culture and the perception of government work as well as the caliber of people choosing to work for cities. The efficient, effective local public sector that results will improve the quality of life for all Americans.